Dr Jonathan Kemp has created a new video on the physics of guitar and bass strings explaining the importance of engineering strain on sensitivity to pitch bends (including how this can be controlled for wound string designs) and explaining why he designs lumped bass guitar strings. https://youtu.be/LYuoeUqSUR0 References Quantitative Analysis of the Musicality of an … Read more
When I first saw demonstrations of string vibration using low tension rubber/elastic strings my instiinct was that the behaviour must be very different from the vibration of strings in real musical instruments such as a guitar. Assuming the rubber is stretched enough, however, it turns out that rubber strings do satify the wave equation to … Read more
Dr Jonathan Kemp of Kemp Strings has designed custom strings released by Maurizio Über Basses (MüB) for 18 inch basses. The gauges in inches are 0.186, 0.138, 0.103, 0.077, 0.058, 0.042 and feature lumps for controlling inharmonicity and tapering customised to fit the large diameter bass strings onto the instruments. Achieving this on an instrument … Read more
Dr Jonathan Kemp of Kemp Strings, not content with inventing strings that facilitate new possibilities for the existing guitar and bass designs has recently invented a new way of making music with hot chocolate: The hot chocolate effect, first explained in print by Frank Crawford in 1980, means different pitches can be heard on tapping … Read more
Edit for New Year 2023: A version of these strings has been designed by Kemp Strings and released for 18 inch for Low E Tuning (for Miezo & X3M 18″ basses) at https://www.mauriziouberbasses.com/merchandise Has Kemp Strings enabled the development of the shortest full range steel strung bass guitar instrument ever? Listen using headphones or a … Read more
Dr Jonathan Kemp of Kemp Strings and the University of St Andrews has been helping musical people all over the world to connect during the social isolation of the COVID-19 outbreak by writing code the enable collaboration videos to be created in REAPER digital audio workstation (DAW) software. Dr. Kemp’s code is now built in … Read more
University of St Andrews and Kemp Strings inventor Dr Jonathan Kemp has just developed a new concept in bass guitar strings design which reduces inharomicity, improving tone when playing high up the neck. Inharmonicity is a term which refers to the way that the resonances of a vibrating string go increasingly sharp of true harmonics … Read more
It is already known that reducing the distance between the ball end and saddle improves tuning stability, hence the deep trem block holes in modern designs by companies such as Fender and PRS that contrast with the original shallow trem block holes of the original vintage Fender design. The experiments outlined in this post provide … Read more
Kemp Strings now offers Drop D string sets as an option on all string sets. These are also good for other tunings with the same relative tuning for the bottom four strings such as Drop C and DADGAD. When you select strings in the Kemp Strings Shop you are required to choose your tuning (Standard … Read more
Did you ever think about why industry standard strings have a zigzag for the saddles positions after setting intonation? Here are some saddles set up for industry standard strings: The saddles for the 4th string (D3) is less sensitive to bending than the neighbouring strings, so the string length has to be made shorter as … Read more